A normal family reunion; an uneventful surprise stopover by a parent: in cinema, neither exists. To the benefit of filmmakers, condensing the space that separates adult offspring from their progenitors only expands their festering issues. Fiery arguments, playful banter and uncomfortable pauses are frequent outcomes, all mined in decades of familial disharmony in film.
Visitors (Die Besucher) adheres to type as it delves into the strained relationships of Jakob Stein (Uwe Kockisch, German TV’s Donna Leon), his unhappy wife Hanna (Corinna Kirchhoff, Three), and their three grown children, all over the course of one incident-filled day. The usual animosity emanates from their unlikely gathering, sparked by Jakob making an unexpected appearance on Karla (Anjorka Strechel, The Edge), Sonni (Anne Müller, Same Same But Different) and Arnolt’s (Jakob Diehl, The Baader Meinhof Complex) respective doorsteps. He yearns to reconnect; they want to unburden years of anger. He has to loosen their financial dependence by necessity; they hide their difficulties with the realities of maturity.
Customary struggles and predictable plights furnish a film touched by all things standard, its rendering of average instances of malaise narratively and thematically comparable to the wealth of similar material. For debut writer/director Constanze Knoche and her co-scribe and partner Leis Bagdach (Junction Point), the commonality of their premise and their characters’ problems is almost the point. Their narrative intrigues in its relatable nature, finding tension in the bristling altercations and – when long-held resentments finally unfurl – blunt outbursts.
Within the recognisable scenario, commentary on the arrested development of youth has the strongest resonance as the Stein children react against their father’s revelations. Correlations specific to the feature’s time and place of contemporary post-war Germany add another evident layer of distinctiveness, reflecting the generational gap that haunts the country after its reconstruction.
In the bustling Berlin streets and in bland interiors, Knoche also fills Visitors with visual depictions of ordinariness, working in shades of grey with cinematographer Kirsten Weingarten (White Box). Little distinguishes the imagery apart from its patience, the filmmaker’s interest in theatre an obvious influence. Silence provides the most common audio accompaniment, embodying the lingering sound of things left mostly unspoken.
With so much of the mundane at play, the feature tasks its actors with bearing the burden of the emotion, a feat in which they perform admirably. As the central point of focus and the impetus for the film’s events, Kockisch may be afforded more room to show range; however the efforts of Strechel, Müller and Diehl in eliciting sympathy from a situation often weighted against their characters can’t be underestimated. That the cast sells the demanding dynamic, given the quantum of analogous depictions on screen, is a testament to their effectiveness. Visitors may blend in to its obvious family drama confines, but it does so with care, competence and confidence.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Visitors (Die Besucher)
Director: Constanze KnocheGermany, 2012, 92 mins
Audi Festival of German Films
www.goethe.de/ozfilmfest
Chauvel Cinema & Palace Norton St
Sydney: 26 March – 10 April
Palace Cinema Como & Kino Cinemas
Melbourne: 27 March – 11 April
Palace Centro
Brisbane: 28 March – 3 April
Palace Electric Cinema
Canberra: 1 April – 6 April
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